


Tout Le Monde Sait Comment On Fait Les Bébés (Mais Personne Sait Comment On Fait Des Papas)

by sebasent



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Angst, Barry is a Little Shit, Everyone else is confused, Fluff, Joe is a good parent, No Romance, Other, family love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-01
Updated: 2016-02-01
Packaged: 2018-05-17 16:34:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5877874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sebasent/pseuds/sebasent
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five times Joe called Barry his son, and one time Barry called Joe his dad.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tout Le Monde Sait Comment On Fait Les Bébés (Mais Personne Sait Comment On Fait Des Papas)

**Author's Note:**

> or, in which the title is longer than the actual fanfic, probably.  
> Hello!!  
> So I got an [ask](http://coolerthan0k.tumblr.com/post/138494710714/dis-iz-naht-a-shipping-prompt-but-ive-always) on tumblr and I just couldn't resist writing this as an actual fanfic rather than a drabble because _it was too adorable_. So here.  
>  Have fun.  
> (The title is from [Papaoutai by Stromae](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiKj0Z_Xnjc%0A) but that song has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with this!! it roughly translates to, _Everyone knows how to make babies (But nobody knows how to be a dad)_ )

**1.**

Eleven-year-old Barry sits on the couch of the West’s house (who offered to let him stay until his dad’s trial). His hands shake, his nose runs, and his cheeks are stained with tears and exhaustion.

There’s a detective in front of him telling him that his dad- his _dad-_ had done something very, very bad to his mom and that he’ll be taken away so that he cannot do any of those bad things again.

“My dad didn’t do it,” Barry repeats. The officers don’t even look at him now.

He stays very still and eventually falls asleep, with his head bracketed in between his arms and his knees, and he dreams of his mother’s still face and the heartbreak evident on his father’s face- he doesn’t sleep for long.

Detective West is there when he opens his eyes next, not even an hour after he finally fell asleep in the first place, and his eyes are sad but determined.

“Don’t worry, son,” West says, “I’ll take care of you.”

Barry isn’t sure if he believes him. “But my dad-”

 “Look, son,” Joe says, his hands on Barry’s shoulders, eyes staring right into his. “Your dad, he was-”

“My dad wasn’t bad,” Barry insists, and refuses to listen anymore, because why should he listen to them is they won’t listen to him?

Joe sighs, defeated. “Barry…”

“No!” Barry says, and he pulls away from Joe’s grasp- _no no no no no,_ he refuses to believe a lie he _knows_ is a lie.

He runs to the room Joe and Iris lent him, and he slams the door, making sure that Joe knows how _angry_ Barry is.

He doesn’t come down for dinner, not even after all the other officers are gone. He knows- has known, for over three days- that his mother isn’t coming back, and that his father is put away for a while, but it still feels _wrong._

He promises himself- and his dad- that he’ll get him out of prison.

Even if it’s the last thing he does.

**2.**

Two years after his dad is put away, Barry wakes up screaming.

He still sees the residues of lightning on the corner of his eye and feels the static rise every hair on his body, and the fear and blood and dirt that covered him when he was on the street, a blink of an eye later.

Joe barges into his room, eyes wild and alert, and then his arms are around Barry. “Hey, hey, Barry…”

Barry sighs and sniffles and shakes his head. “Joe?” he asks, and he’s so scared and tired he doesn’t remember his residual anger for a while.

“I’m here, son,” Joe says, rocking him a little like if he were a baby. “I’m here, don’t worry…”

Barry doesn’t.

**3.**

Barry stands on the stage, smiling down at so many people; he spots Joe (and Iris, beautiful Iris) among the crowd and his smile becomes impossibly bigger, brighter.

He walks down with his diplomas and throws his graduation cap not long after, and the Wests come stand by his side while he celebrates.

“I’m proud of you, son,” Joe says, his arm around Barry’s shoulders and his smile almost as wide as Barry’s own. “Congratulations.”

Barry nods, and hugs him, and then he hugs Iris- “Congrats, you nerd,” she says, and she hugs him. Joe winks at him from behind her back.

Barry pretends he doesn’t notice.

**4.**

Joe runs into the hospital room, confused, angry, desperate. “Barry? Barry, my son, oh lord..”

He looks at Barry, stable and unconscious, and Iris, who’s asleep with her head resting on her best friend’s shoulder.

Joe stumbles back some, but officer Thawne is there- “I found him in his lab,” he says, “He was struck by lightning from the storm. He’s in a coma.”

Joe’s eyes well up with tears. “A coma?”

Thawne nods, solemn. “I’m sorry, Joe.”

Joe shakes his head. His eyes don’t leave Barry’s form, unnaturally still.

“Shit,” he says, and it pretty much sums it up.

**5.**

“Barry, I’m sorry…”

Barry looks at Joe, his eyes staining with tears and his cheeks red from grief. “It wasn’t your fault. I should’ve- I should’ve _listened_ to you,” he says, and then he laughs humourlessly- “If I had, maybe, maybe none of this would’ve happened, maybe I-”

“Barry,” Joe cuts him off, crouching down and putting a hand on the speedster’s shoulder like he did many years ago. “None of this is your fault. Wells- Thawne- planned it. If it’s anyone’s fault, it’s his, okay?”

Barry sniffles and then he leans forward, hugging Joe tight in a way he’s done only a handful of times before.

“Thanks, Joe.”

Joe smiles, pats Barry’s back, and nods. “Of course, son.”

**+1.**

Barry looks at the watch before him, and thinks of Joe’s words- _his son,_ Barry thinks, and he also thinks of what _he_ said, of Joe teaching him all the things a dad is supposed to teach, of being all the things a dad is supposed to _be._

He thinks of his actual dad, who left him the moment he was free, who probably didn’t want anything to do with Barry and his weird, hectic life, and well. He doesn’t know when he started loving Joe in the same way and intensity that he loves his father, but Barry’s not about to complain about it.

Instead, he thinks, he’s going to tell Joe what is probably long overdue- “Thanks, dad,” he says.

Well.

That wasn’t what he _planned_ , but it gets the job done, too, he guesses.

Joe freezes for a second, and then his eyes are wet again, the watch almost completely forgotten, and he’s pulling Barry into a tight, tight hug.

“You’re welcome,” he says, voice choking, and then he adds, “Son.”

Barry feels really, truly happy for the first time in a long, long, _long_ time.

**Author's Note:**

> What do you think?? <3  
> Come ramble with me on [tumblr!](http://coolerthan0k.tumblr.com)


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